UPMC Shadyside Hospital’s 10-year master plan defines what future development will look like and how expansions will be addressed to minimize the impact to adjacent neighborhoods. In getting the required community input, UPMC Shadyside has conducted community meetings with residents and businesses, a formal design review, a traffic study, a Planning Commission hearing and, most recently, a presentation to City Council. You can see their presentation to Pittsburgh City Council here. The latest version of the complete UPMC Shadyside Hospital Project Area Master Plan can be viewed here and an archive of other associated documents is available here.

To get the big picture of what the proposed changes have to offer, here are some highlights of the benefits:

435 new construction jobs

$200+ million in development

A 1,000 car parking garage at Luna Square

Rehabbing the historic Ford Motor Building into a cancer research center with an additional matching building added

A new outpatient center to allow for all private rooms

Traffic and streetscape improvements

The ultimate goal is to achieve the economic growth promised by these changes while still maintaining neighborhood livability. The interest of existing businesses and residents must be protected in the process. And, of course, any changes must meet with strong urban design standards.

Below, are artist renderings of some of the proposed changes, but please see the above links for all the details.

One option might be staggered start times for the hospital and UPMC staff, which would take a creative scheduling and time entry system to work, But it would relieve the deluge of vehicles on streets at peak hours – on streets that were never intended for high volume traffic. A CMU project?

Another idea might be to restrict delivery trucks on these same streets until after peak hours in order to not add to the congestion.

One option might be staggered start times for the hospital and UPMC staff, which would take a creative scheduling and time entry system to work, But it would relieve the deluge of vehicles on streets at peak hours – on streets that were never intended for high volume traffic. A CMU project?

Another idea might be to restrict delivery trucks on these same streets until after peak hours in order to not add to the commuter congestion.

Adding capacity for cars mean that there will just be more cars. No mention of bike lanes to help with the congestion issue? This is sad and a very un-progressive design for an urban area, something that we should have stopped doing in the 70s. Please see what other cities are doing like Chicago, New York, Philly, and even Memphis before doubling the number of car lanes. This kind of mentality is what is keeping Pittsburgh from being a world class city.